re: Free Weekend in Elder Scrolls Online starting today

For those who thought they might have some interest in Elder Scrolls Online, but were put off with having to shell out $50 to purchase the base game, they are having a free weekend. You can give it a try to see if you like it, and if so, offering a discount on the base game price.

After you've purchased the base game you don't have to subscribe... though, like Lotro, it makes life easier if you do. You can most of the game free (not special stuff like thieves guild, brotherhood sect, etc.) and can purchase those special areas with gems, though I don't believe there is any way to earn those gems in-game, unlike Lotro.

ESO has gorgeous open landscapes, much like Lotro. The battle mechanics are different though. No tab to acquire and punch buttons. You have to mouse over your target and press buttons, just as it is in Oblivion or Skyrim.

They did open the world up, like the original games, though... and you can wander at will. It is wonderful just striking out whichever direction I want and exploring new landscapes. Downside is it leaves less time for questing. I did try picking up quests as I went, but I never finished them and soon had my quest log full to overflowing!! hehe

Last edited by Tearna Quickfoot on 2017/04/15 11:06 am; edited 1 time in total

_________________

Part-time treasure hunter, playwright/director wannabe and head over heels in love with her handsome husband, Tamoro.

re: Free Weekend in Elder Scrolls Online starting today

Thanks for posting this, Tearna. I noticed this advertised elsewhere and have dipped my toe into the water, and thus far I am really enjoying what I am seeing (barring one irritating player interaction which I chalked up to "free week yokels").

Although, the crafting-hoarder in me was more than a bit dismayed at how quickly I filled every ounce of storage space. I just can't pass up a melon or a piece of ginger or whatever when I stumble upon it! Mmmm...ginger-melons.

re: Free Weekend in Elder Scrolls Online starting today

Update: Talking to friends last night we checked on the discount price. Base game alone is on sale for $10. $30 will buy the base game plus the extra areas they've added (thieves guild, brotherhood (assassins), orsenium, pvp in cyrodil) and a palomino pony... which will be worth it if you play. It takes about $10K to buy a horse in game and I have maybe $75K on all my characters and played for about a year in beta after and another month or so now.

The palomino is really pretty. My special offer gave me a free white horse which is okay, but I'd rather have had the palomino.

And yes, Eilye... I have that issue as well. After coming back this time, I played about 2 weeks f2p and it was a constant struggle to juggle bag space. Other than that, I was not unhappy with things as f2p as I didn't care that much about joining the thieves guild, etc. I broke down a few weeks ago and did a 3 month sub as I think I'll play it at least that long and got the crafting bag. It is totally worth it!! hahaha All that crafting stuff you pick up goes straight into a bottomless bag. No more deciding, do I really want this or not... I grab everything!! I can fill it up as much as I like and if I drop my sub, I can still pull things out... just no more putting things in. haha

We have a LMB guild over there too... small and mostly quiet. But there is usually another person or two and sometimes 4 or 5 of us on when I'm there. You'll have access to guild bank and wise folks who've played longer than me to help answer questions, should you decide you want to explore for more than the weekend.

EDIT: DUH.... I thought I had posted this as a reply in the Tamriel thread below and just noticed that no, it was a brand new one, so changed the subject line to better reflect the topic. hahaha Sorry if I caused confusion among folks wondering what free weekend Lotro was having.

_________________

Part-time treasure hunter, playwright/director wannabe and head over heels in love with her handsome husband, Tamoro.

re: Free Weekend in Elder Scrolls Online starting today

Ah, that's interesting. How do you feel about how they handle this sort of thing relative to LotRO?

LotRO is, for the most part, pretty "in your face" with the store. There are countless breadcrumbs that direct you there. Finish your allotment of daily tasks? Head to the store! Need more storage? Head to the store! etc. ESO, on the other hand, is way more subtle about it. The last time I played, I finished my first starter island, and I honestly can't remember a single reference to the store. I finally went looking through my keybinds to find the hotkey for it just to confirm that it actually existed.

However, LotRO actually allows you to permanently solve your issue du jour using the store. Once you buy that storage or quest pack or barter wallet or whatever, that's it...it's yours. Conversely, ESO immediately serves you up a big helping of inventory frustration with no means to really solve it short of subbing, and then you are right back in dirt again if you ever let the sub lapse. (I know you are able to buy bag/bank upgrades, but I can tell already that will not be enough for a dedicated crafter - mules and never-ending inventory juggling would be a staple of the game.)

I am a big fan of the subtle store, but I cast a disapproving eye on intentionally engineering the inventory system to never work the way you'd want it without being a subscriber. Ah, well. I am having fun thus far. I expect the way I shall treat it is to view a subscription as mandatory if I decide to move forward. That will make me more likely to abandon the game sooner, but at least I'll enjoy the trip more!

As a longer term player, do you have any impressions to share? Things that have really pleased you, upset you, challenged you? I'm interested in whatever feedback you have to share.

re: Free Weekend in Elder Scrolls Online starting today

Every few days I'll log in and have the latest store sales visible but you close it and move on. After that you can have a store-free day of gaming. The game is literally free. If you get the Gold Edition (4 DLC and the steed) you have access to all game content. The primary perk of subbing is the crafting bag (which has unlimited, let me say that again, UNLIMITED storage capacity that is shared across all characters for crafting loot) and the 1500 crowns per month to use in their store. A few other minor perks like increased decoration slots in houses, 10% boost to earning xp, gold, etc, and access to future DLC (not counting expacs).

The upcoming expansion Morrowind (which I believe was also the name of the third ES single-player game years ago; Oblivion was 4 I think and Skyrim was 5) will of course bring new content that you have to buy in order to play, but otherwise that's about it.

I am currently playing this game with a good friend of mine. You can join 5 guilds at a time (per account, so it applies to all characters), but a guild needs at least 10 members before you can use the guild bank/vault. You can only be the leader of one guild tho. Trade is a bit odd; there is no formal auction house, but you can find guild traders in most towns that allow you to trade with other guilds in that region.

I am thoroughly enjoying this game. You can go anywhere, do whatever quests you want. Everything scales with your level so if you find particular quests to be boring, you can leave them and go somewhere else. There is an "epic" style quest chain with the Prophet (who calls you the Vestige), so you'll want to do those even if they are boring.

There are six crafts and you can do any of them on any characters at will. Note that to craft high level things you do have to spend skill points (which are the same points used to get new abilities, etc) so you will really only want to do one craft (MAYBE two) per character. But you get 8 character slots for free, so if you have the inclination you can easily do one craft per character and be fine. I'm currently doing enchanting which is quite fun and is really useful. Get a piece of gear with a crap enhancement? Make your own enhancement and overwrite it.

You can collect skyshards across Tamriel. Every three skyshards gives you one bonus skill point. I find this to be quite fun tracking them all down. You will inevitably stumble across skyshards on your own but in order to get all of them you will probably want to just use wiki to help locate them -- they are hidden quite well most of the time.

Every class can use any armor and any weapon, but most of them will have set bonuses and passive stats that are geared for specific things (health, magicka, stamina). If you are a caster, you will want set bonuses and stats that give magicka, if you are a tank you will want health. Stamina is good for melee DPS as you use stamina for blocking, power attacks, etc. Stamina is also used for sprinting and sneaking.

I have played a templar and a sorcerer. Sorcerers don't really have any self-heals -- they are mostly for DPS. Templars are like captains or paladins and use a combination of magic and melee (depending on what you decide to put your points into) and can heal themselves or other players with magic. Magic users will typically want to use staffs. Destruction staffs are for DPS but there are also restoration staffs that do lesser DPS but give a little healing when you attack with your staff. But again, you can use any weapon you want.

At level 15 you can have two sets of weapons. Swapping between them automatically swaps your active skills (max of 5 skills plus your ultimate skill ability). You can put whatever skills you want in. So if you are a sorcerer who has a destruction staff and a restoration staff you can swap the staffs at will and use a different set of skills depending on the situation.

You also have some quick ability slots where you can put things like potions for quick access during fights. You can't put skills here though.

re: Free Weekend in Elder Scrolls Online starting today

The thing I love about it is they've made it like the single player games... you can go anywhere and explore everywhere without worrying about what level you are. You will want to be careful around boss areas (marked with big skulls on the map) and see if you can't find a group already engaged to join in killing it for the achievement.

Lots of great add-ons. I use Minion to manage them. Some that I love:

Skyshards (shows you where they are on the map... but don't use this if you prefer to ferret them all out on your own)
Votan's Fisherman and Fish Fillet (shows you where the fishing spots spawn and fillet lets you que it up to do all the fish you own rather than one at a time)
Advanced filters (ESO default bags are very basic, this will separate your heavy armor from the medium and light, let you look at just daggers or staves, etc. VERY HANDY)
Awesome Guildstore (Guildstore interface is again, very basic. This adds all kinds of tools to limit your search to just what you want!
Destinations (you start with a blank map, like Lotro used to do, and this gives you red Xs where things are before you actually find them... again only use if you don't want the thrill of discovery on your own. )
Lost Treasure (maps out locations of the treasure maps you will pick up in game)
Wykkyd Gaming Suite - though to be honest I should pare this one down... I really only use his toolbar which is wonderful!! and his quest tracker which is much better than the game version and his chat features which I like better than game default.
Multi-craft (lets you que up to craft X number of items instead of 1 at a time, particularly helpful when processing raw materials).
Shissu's LUA memory (I was getting warnings to get rid of some of my addons because the allotted memory was almost full... this manages the memory allotment so that isn't an issue)
Master Merchant: If you get into a guild with a guildstore (what amounts to auction house in ESO)this will show you what things are selling for in the guildstores you are a member of. If you want a worldwide view of sales and prices you need to use https://us.tamrieltradecentre.com/pc/Trade

IF you run a sorcerer and go with the pet line, you'll want to check out Pet Dismiss. Otherwise the only way to dismiss your pets is for them to die or log out. hahaha Pet Dismiss simply adds them to the keymap section so you can assign a key to get rid of them.

You will want to find one of the giant anchors (off the top of my head I forget what they are called.. DUH). There are none in the starting areas, but the 2nd land you go to should have some. I think the one in Auridon is most convenient for just starting out... just outside the main city Vokhal Guard (not sure if spelled right) and usually a ton of players there. They spawn every 5 minutes.. a group activity but most anchors have folks hanging about.. don't try to do one solo unless you are very powerful... and it drops a chest which has some nice jewelry and often a weapon drop. The jewelry is usually part of a set with set bonuses.

Also, look around for chests hidden on the landscape. Click on the chest and lock pick it (make sure you have a good supply of lockpicks because you will break some) to open and get the stuff inside. Usually the simple mode drops green, but I've had purple drops from advanced chests. I love finding chests!! And they seem to be a good place to find nice weapon drops... if you aren't crafting your own.

Deeds in ESO are called achievements... my favorite is accomplishing certain things unlocks dye colors you can use to dye your armor. Very limited cosmetic clothing in ESO (mostly some so-so stuff you pick up because it is used as disguise in quests and stuff you buy in store), but they have a nice selection of styles if you create your own armor.. and all of the armor piece can be dyed.. none of this 80% of the color is fixed and you can only fiddle with 20% of the garment. Clothing has 3 dye channels and you pick and choose from your unlocked dye colors what you want for each channel... very nice.

I'm having fun with their housing as well. You do a quest (free quest you get from ESO store) to get a free apartment. There are 3 free "apartments" or inn rooms, one in each faction area. A character from that faction has to do the quest to get that room. They are small but fun to decorate. They are also nice because they give you a free port to your house from anywhere in the world... much like lotro does but you can have a port to each house and you can own a TON of houses if you have the gold or store cash to spend on them.

Also, you craft furniture for the houses (though you can buy it from the ESO store too). I've managed to build up a nice selection of recipes.. a few I bought from a guildstore, but if you are sure to loot all the backpacks you find in game and some chests, the recipes drop pretty well. To craft furniture you do need to do a LOT of gathering though, as some of the furniture mats are occasional drops with the regular materials (chop wood and get wood and sometimes a heartwood). I can see this getting very frustrating without the bottomless crafting materials bag, though.

As for frustrations: probably the skyshards hidden at the bottom of delves and dungeons.... because you need a group.... and things spawn fast inside them. I've followed other groups in to grab a skyshard or maybe manage to get a tag on the boss and get credit for that achievement. But often I lag behind and there've been times when the mobs started respawning before I got done and I died trying to get out. haha Most groups zip through as fast as they can. I think it is group dungeons that are the worst... they have 6-8 mobs all linked together, no way to pull a few here and there. Definitely set up to require a group.

Having said that, I am 2 guilds which do some group runs, but I spend so much of my time running around exploring, collecting stuff and fishing! hehe It is hard to drag myself away to join them.

And world chat there is no better than world chat in lotro so I usually turn it off.

_________________

Part-time treasure hunter, playwright/director wannabe and head over heels in love with her handsome husband, Tamoro.